Tag: indonesia
‘The Last of Us’s Indonesia sequence marks a huge departure from the games
The Last of Us is establishing a pattern of opening its episodes with flashbacks. The entire show opens with a guest on a 1968 talk show detailing the horrific potential for a Cordyceps outbreak — potential which becomes reality in 2003. The show’s second episode, “Infected,” opens with a vignette showing the reaction to the very start of the Cordyceps outbreak in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The sequence harkens back to the scene in the very first episode where Joel (Pedro Pascal), Sarah (Nico Parker), and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) hear about unrest in Jakarta over the radio. Now, we know the true source of the unrest: The Cordyceps outbreak started in Jakarta because of mutated fungus in a flour and grain factory.
Not only does the Indonesia opening establish a concrete point of origin for the outbreak that isn’t in the game — it also marks the first time The Last of Us franchise explores how Cordyceps affects a country outside the United States. On HBO’s The Last of Us podcast, the show’s co-creator and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann explains that the game version of The Last of Us is a love letter to Americana. Because of this, “we made the conscious choice to never leave the United States,” he says.
However, the show took a different direction. Co-creator Craig Mazin elaborates on this in the podcast. “We knew we wanted to give a little bit more of an origin story [to the Cordyceps outbreak]. We wanted to see what it would really be like at the very, very beginning,” he says. “We wanted to show also that it was global, that this wasn’t just happening in America. This was the world.”
Originally, Mazin and Druckmann planned for a montage showing how Cordyceps was ravaging several different places across the world. However, the budget wouldn’t allow for it, so they went for something much more contained: a sequence between an Indonesian mycologist (Christine Hakim) and military officer (Yayu A.W. Unru) who realize the scope of the threat before them.
These scenes may not boast the zombie-like horror of the Clickers, or the frightening prospect of a darkened museum, but they are full of a chilling sense of dread. From the moment the mycologist first picks Cordyceps tendrils out of a corpse’s mouth, we know that the apocalypse is near. And so does she.
In a tense one-take shot that gradually zooms in on the mycologist, she reveals that the only solution to this crisis is to bomb any impacted areas. As Mazin says in the podcast, “there’s nothing you can do at that point that is going to make this better other than the unthinkable.”
It’s a heartbreaking moment, especially when the mycologist requests that she be brought back home to be with her family as the world comes to an end. Like the talk show in episode one, where John Hannah’s mycologist drives home the lack of pharmaceutical solutions for fungal infections of this kind, the Indonesia sequence also reminds us of the incredible threat Cordyceps presents — only now, instead of a hypothetical, it’s a reality. And the only defense against it is destruction.
The Last of Us is now streaming on HBO Max with new episodes airing weekly on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
Here comes the sun(bird): Trinity zoologists find new species in Indonesia
The study that identified the new bird species in Indonesia has been published in the same journal that printed Charles Darwin’s famous theories in 1858.
Read more: Here comes the sun(bird): Trinity zoologists find new species in Indonesia
Waste4Change is building a circular economy in Indonesia
Even the largest landfills in Indonesia are at (or nearing) capacity, and the government has set an ambitious target of 30% waste reduction by 2025. Waste4Change is one of the companies that wants to help by increasing rates of recycling and enabling better waste management. The startup, which currently manages more than 8,000 tons of […]
Waste4Change is building a circular economy in Indonesia by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch
Steam service returns to Indonesia, Epic Games Store still blocked
Steam, Epic and other digital storefronts are currently banned in Indonesia
Indonesia blocks Steam, PayPal and other services over missed regulatory deadline
Indonesia is blocking residents from accessing various online platforms after those services failed to comply with a July 29th regulatory deadline, reports Reuters (via The Verge). Among the affected platforms are PayPal, Steam and Yahoo (owned by Engadget’s parent company Apollo Management).
Under the country’s 2020 MR5 law, companies labeled as “Private Electronic System Providers” had until this week to register with a government database or face an outright ban. Similar to India’s restrictive 2021 IT law, MR5 gives Indonesia the power to force online platforms to take down content the government deems unlawful or a threat to public order. In instances involving “urgent” requests, services have four hours to take action.
According to Reuters, a handful of tech companies, including Google, Meta and Amazon, rushed in recent days to meet Friday’s deadline. Indonesia may restore access to some of the online services that are currently blocked in the country, provided they register with the government.
PayPal and Valve did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the general director of Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information, told a local news network that the government could temporarily lift restrictions on PayPal to allow users to withdraw their money.
Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch have criticized Indonesia’s new content moderation rules. “[MR5] is a tool for censorship that imposes unrealistic burdens on the many digital services and platforms that are used in Indonesia,” said Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal advisor at Human Rights Watch. “It poses serious risks to the privacy, freedom of speech, and access to information of Indonesian internet users.”
Many Indonesians have also come out against the law, using hashtags like “BlokirKominfo” to voice their opposition to the government’s actions. On Saturday, Pangerapan dismissed those criticisms, saying the measure would help protect the country’s internet users.
Indonesia bans access to Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, and more
The Indonesian government has blocked access to a range of online services, including Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, and Yahoo after the companies failed to comply with a new requirement related to the country’s restrictive content moderation laws, as reported earlier by Reuters.
In line with the rules, companies deemed “Private Electronic System Providers” must register with the government’s database to operate in the country, or otherwise face a nationwide ban. Indonesia gave companies until July 27th to comply and has since banned those that haven’t.
The requirement is part of an overarching law, called MR5, which was first introduced in 2020. As noted by Reuters, the laws give…
Steam blocked in Indonesia alongside Epic Games and Origin
New regulations see multiple large gaming services including Steam blocked in Indonesia after the companies failed to meet a deadline to comply with changes to registration requirements in the Southeast Asian country. Other game industry services affected include the likes of Epic Games, CS: GO, Origin, and Dota 2, along with the likes of PayPal and Yahoo. The blocks are not permanent, but are set to remain in place until the companies agree to comply with the newly implemented regulations.
As reported by Niko Partners, new regulations put in place by Kominfo, the Indonesian ministry of communication and information technology, required companies operating in Indonesia to register with Kominfo by July 29 or face “a formal warning, a monetary fine, and access termination.” Now that the deadline has passed, it appears that multiple major IPs in the country have implemented blocks to those companies which have not met the requirements.
Among the names listed as registered on the Kominfo site are Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Discord, and Riot Games. It was initially reported that both Microsoft Bing and Blizzard’s Battle.net were not registered, but it appears that both companies have been added to the list as of July 29, and some users in the country have reported that the services are still working for them.
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